Captain Murasa
by Game2002
Summary: Something dangerous is lurking in a certain lake in Gensokyo, and Minamitsu is going to find out what it is and do something about it. Third story of the "build-up series".
1. Lake Placid

"Did you find it yet?" Nue called out to Mamizou while looking into a bush.

"Nope," Mamizou replied while paying close attention to a river bank. "I'm starting to think that it may have fallen into the river and got washed away. Or maybe it sank to the bottom… You should be more careful next time when you sneeze… Dropping something from a height like that not only breaks it, but can even injure someone."

"Okay, okay… I'm sorry for sneezing, okay?" Nue said while looking at her with a frustrated face. "Let's see you try not to drop something when you sneeze next time!"

"Doing that is as easy as saying it," Mamizou said while continuing to scan the river bank. Suddenly, she noticed something lying on a flat piece of rock up ahead, so she quickly approached it. "I found it, Nue!"

Nue looked up from the bush and then rushed over to the tanuki. "Really?" Mamizou showed her the iPhone-sized device that she picked up. "It really is the one! Good job finding it!"

Mamizou inspected all sides of the device and tapped it with the back of her index finger. "Not a single scratch or crack on it… This thing's pretty durable! But what is this anyway?"

"You're from the outside world, so shouldn't you know what it is?" Nue asked her.

"Well, this thing does remind me of a smartphone, but there's no screen on it…" Mamizou said. "There are no buttons on it either… Perhaps an incomplete one? Maybe we should show it to the kappas and see if they can figure out what it is."

Nue snatched the device away from her and said, "No way! I found it first, so I have the right to keep it! This is my souvenir for making it out of that mad scientist's grasp alive!"

"You do realize that you stole from that place, didn't you…?" Mamizou asked her. "I'm very sure that Yumemi was looking for you to get this back…"

"Too bad for her that she completely forgot about this," Nue said as she put the device into her bag. "It's mine now! Anyway, let's go back home now. They probably won't expect us to be back so soon. This will make a good surprise for them!"

"Maybe," Mamizou said with a shrug, and then they both flew into the air and headed for the Myouren Temple.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A Game2002 Production

TOUHOU PROJECT

.

.

.

**BGM: A loud, orchestrated version of the beginning of Captain Murasa**

CAPTAIN MURASA

**Chapter 1  
Lake Placid**

**BGM Ends**

* * *

Minamitsu was busy shoveling the snow covering the path that led to the Myouren Temple's entrance. Thanks to her strength, she was able to pick up a large amount of snow using the shovel without slowing down at all. After clearing the path of the snow, she sighed and then wiped her forehead with her hand. "Well, that's that," she said. "Even in cold days like this, working can still make you sweat. A little warmth during this time of the year is always a good thing! By the way, I hope Nue and Mamizou are having a good time out there."

She then looked at the sky and noticed two spots coming in the direction of the temple. She looked closer to see what they were, and when they came closer, she smile and said, "Well! Sure didn't expect them to come back so soon!"

* * *

"And then I pointed that device at him at the last second, and then… BANG!" Nue said excitedly to the residents of the Myouren Temple. "With that, everyone who got turned into nues changed back to normal, include the mad scientist himself! Just like that, we managed to save the day and become famous!"

"Though for people like us, being famous in the outside world probably isn't a good thing, so we made our escape fast," Mamizou added.

The others looked at those two in silent, not sure whether or not to believe them. "Well, you have quite a story out there, don't you…?" Nazrin asked.

"Wow! I can't believe that you managed to save the outside world!" said an excited Kyouko. "You both are awesome!"

"Yeah! We're great, right?" Nue proudly said.

"The both of you did a great job saving humanity out there!" Byakuren said. "This will surely be a huge step forward towards establishing relationship with humans and demons! However, I understand the fact that the people outside are not ready to accept the existence of our kind yet, so perhaps quickly leaving at the end was a good decision. For now, simply letting them know that demons do exist is a good enough start!"

Mamizou then let out a yawn. After that, she stretched her arms and said, "I feel sleepy… Saving the world sure took away a lot of energy…"

"Go ahead and rest! You both deserve it after saving the world! We'll be sure to whip up a tasty dinner for the both of you!" Byakuren said, and then she looked at Nue. "I'll be sure to prepare shrimp tempura, your favorite, too!"

Hearing this, Nue threw her arms into the air and exclaimed, "ALL RIGHT!"

* * *

Back in her room, Nue emptied her bag to put the items inside back to their proper places. She noticed the iPhone-sized object again, so she picked it up to look at it. "Just what exactly is this thing…?" she wondered. "Mamizou says it looks like something from the outside world, but at the same time, she doesn't know what it is…"

She looked at all sides of the device, tapped it with the back of her index finger, shook it, and placed it next to her ear to see it was capable of making sound. After a minute of tinkering around with the device, she said, "This looks a piece of stylized board… There's nothing special about it… Why would they place keep it in a container anyway? It's not like this thing is anything important or dangerous…"

Suddenly, there was the sound of an insect buzzing next to her ear, so she used her hand to try to shoo away what she thought was either a fly or a mosquito, but when the insect flew in front of her face, it turned out to be a wasp. Freaked out by the sight of it, Nue crawled back from it while swinging the device at it. Doing so made her accidentally throw the device at the wasp and pushed it to the wall, crushing it. When the device fell to the floor, the circles and lines on it started to glow with blue light, a sight that made Nue surprised. A blue vortex suddenly appeared in front of the device.

Nue stared in awe at the vortex for several seconds, and eventually, the vortex disappeared, revealing a large insect-like creature that resembled a dragonfly with pincers on the wall, and it was the size of a street dog.

Nue was shocked by the appearance of this creature. Fearing that the creature might be dangerous, she slowly approached her trident and picked it up to point it at it. She stared in silence at the creature for several seconds, waiting for it to make a move. When nothing happened for a while, she said in her head, "I think I better go and tell the others about this… Its appearance doesn't scream friendly whatsoever… It's probably very dangerous too…"

She moved in the direction of the door and reached for the handle. When her hand touched the handle, the creature turned its head to Nue and revealed that it had no visible eyes and a head that was somewhat reptilian in appearance. Nue smiled nervously and said, "Hi…"

The creature suddenly let out a screech before flying in her direction. Nue shrieked and then ducked, and the creature went through the paper door. Nue quickly moved back from the door, and the creature came back inside through the hole it created. Nue thrust her trident at the creature when it charged at her, but to her surprise, the creature dodged it and then caught the trident's handle before flinging it away from her hand. Nue quickly ducked and then ran underneath the creature when it swung its pincer at her neck, and then she rushed out of the room while crying for help.

"What's the matter?" Minamitsu asked as she walked in from around the corner.

"MONSTER BUG!" Nue screamed while running in her direction. The nue ran around the corner, leaving the ship ghost to face the approaching creature by herself.

The creature swung its pincer at Minamitsu's neck and cut off her head in a single swipe. However, both her head and body turned into water immediately after that and then moved underneath the creature in the form of a puddle and past it. The ship ghost changed back to normal after that, this time with an anchor in her hand. "What is this?!" she said with a look of shock.

The creature screeched and then flew at her to swing its pincer at her, but with a single blow from her anchor, she managed to knock it into the wall. The creature fell to the floor, and Minamitsu looked at it and curiously said, "What is this thing?"

The creature shook its head and then got back up. It looked at Minamitsu and screeched angrily before quickly flying at her to swing its pincer at her waist. The attack created a gash "made of water" on Minamitsu's body, but it healed right away. When the creature flew at the ship ghost again, she instantly changed into a puddle to avoid it. The puddle moved underneath the creature, and then a pair of hands made of water came out from the former and caught it from below, instantly pulling it underwater.

Just then, all the residents of the Myouren Temple except for Kyouko came rushing down the hallway, but all they saw was the puddle. "Where's the bug you talked about?" Byakuren asked Nue.

When the puddle started bubbling, they looked at it and knew that Minamitsu must be dealing with things herself. Several seconds later, the bubbling stopped, and then the creature was thrown out of the puddle and onto the floor. The puddle changed back to Minamitsu afterwards.

The others ran up to her and the creature. "Minamitsu! Did you drown this… bug?" Byakuren asked the ship ghost.

Minamitsu looked at the creature and replied, "Almost drowned it… I threw it out when it lost consciousness. I'm sure it's still alive…"

* * *

To make sure that the dragonfly-like creature wouldn't go anywhere or harm anyone, its pincers and wings were bounded by ropes, and then it was placed inside a box that had air holes.

After the residents of the Myouren temple were done doing this, they gathered around to talk about what happened.

Nue showed them the device she brought back from the outside world and said, "And after it hit the wall, a swirly thingy appeared, and when it disappeared that thing was seen on the wall. I assumed it was the wasp transformed by that swirly thingy at first, but when I went back to my room, I found the wasp's dead body on the floor, so that monstrous-looking bug actually isn't the wasp…"

"Perhaps that swirly thingy is actually a portal of sorts that leads to another place," Mamizou said. "When I was living in the outside world, I saw movies and TV shows that have portals resembling what you described, and those either led to a faraway places, another time period, and even alternate dimensions…" Then she looked at the device. "Perhaps this thing is capable of creating portals that lead to other places…"

"So that monstrous-looking bug… It's not from Gensokyo?" Ichirin asked.

"Considering that nobody ever saw something like that here before, I think we can safely assume that," Mamizou replied. "I dare say that it's not even from this planet, time period, or dimension… I have never seen a creature like that anywhere in my life before…"

"Wow… This device really is something to be able to bring life forms from places unheard of!" Kyouko said in disbelief while looking at the device. "The humans of the outside world sure are technologically advanced to create something like this!"

"I dare say it's probably not created by humans…"Mamizou said. "It may probably be created by aliens or highly advanced species that people have yet to discover… You'll never know… "

"Can that really be true…?" Shou asked.

Nue looked at the device and said, "So… what do we do with this? Now that we know what this thing does, do you think it's safe to keep it around?"

"Such a thing can indeed be pretty dangerous," Byakuren said. "However, I think it's also important that we find out what it's truly capable of. That way, we can prevent this thing from being used in the wrong way. Perhaps we should show it to someone like the demon of boundaries or the half-demon of Kourindou. I'm sure either one of them will know what it is."

"I think it's better to ask the former," Mamizou said. "While the latter does have a large collection of outside world stuff and claims to be able to tell what a thing can do just by looking at it, his explanations tend to be… Well, imagine someone from the Edo period trying to explain what a television is or something like that…"

"Well, if Master Hijiri says so, then I'll show it to either one of them," Nue said. "Since Kourindou is closer to this place, I think I'll go there first, and then we'll see if that four-eyed guy can explain what this thing is before deciding whether or not to go to that Yakumo demon."

* * *

Two fishermen were fishing at the edge of a lake that had its water flowing in from the river that came down from Youkai Mountain. Thanks to its size and deepness, the lake wasn't entirely frozen, despite it still being winter.

The fishermen were almost falling asleep from the long wait, and one of them said, "Slow day for fishing, don't you think so?"

"Yeah…" his companion said with a nod. "It isn't like this usually… I wonder what's keeping the fish from falling for our baits today…"

"Perhaps they're getting smarter?" the first fisherman jokingly said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there was a fish demon living in there that could communicate with them and told them to avoid foods that are hanging onto hooks," his companion said.

Underwater, a fish swam in the direction of the second fisherman's bait and bit it. That fisherman felt his fishing rod being tugged, so he started reeling it in. "I got one!" The reeling went smoothly at first, but suddenly, there was a powerful tug that almost pulled him into the water. "Whoa! It's fighting back all of a sudden! Looks like a big one! This is going to be a big…" Before he could finish his phrase, he and his fishing rod were both pulled into the water.

SPLASH!

"Jurou!" said the other fisherman in shock. He saw the surface of the water bubbling and knew that it was his friend. He kept on looking at the bubbling spot and called his friend's name over and over, and eventually, the bubbling stopped. "Jurou? Jurou?! JUROU! Can you hear me?! I'll jump in to rescue you at…"

Suddenly, a dark blue tentacle covered in fish scales shot out of the water, caught him by waist, and pulled him in underwater before he could finish questioning what it was. The part of the water he got pulled into bubbled violently for several seconds before becoming still again.

Then all looked peaceful at the lake, as if nothing had happened at all…

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Here it is! The third story "build-up" story! In case you haven't seen it in my Twitter account yet, the story that is being built up is called Universes' Finest. I'll eventually reveal to you all what that story is about, so please stay tuned!

And don't worry; there won't be any nightmare-inducing stuff in this story, so you can relax.

Also, Jurou is… Nah, I don't think I have to bring up the fact that he's an OC… Oh wait, I just did…

**Trivia:  
**1. This chapter's title is named after the horror film series about man-eating crocodiles. I only saw the first one, mind you.

2. The dragonfly-like creature resembling Megaguirus from the Godzilla series is actually a coincidence… Only realized it after coming up with the former…

3. After the creation of an ASCII art made by someone (?) named Nikaidou that involves a shrimp tempura being thrown into a crying Nue's mouth, it became somewhat popular to associate her with that kind of Japanese dish. As such, I made it her favorite food here. I don't know if Nikaidou is the name of a person or a website, hence the reason I put a question mark next to the word "someone"…


	2. Disappearance at the Lake

**SBS Time!  
Kyouko Kasodani: **I don't know why, but you seem to love cutting Minamitsu's head off.  
**Game2002: **Didn't realize that myself... Just a coincidence that it happened the second time, that's all.

**Chapter 2  
Disappearance at the Lake**

* * *

Nue was having a great time during dinner, because as promised, Byakuren prepared her favorite food, shrimp tempura. The nue was wolfing down so many of them that the others told her to leave some for them, not to mention eating in a more "civilized" manner.

After putting some food onto a tray, Kyouko stood up with the latter and headed out of the room, but Ichirin called out to her before she left. "Where are you going, Kyouko?"

"I'm going to feed that bug," the yamabiko replied. "We can't just leave it there with nothing to eat, can we?" Then she left the room.

"Will she be all right, going to that bug by herself?" Shou asked.

"I think it should be all right," Nazrin said. "Something would've happened already if it really can escape from there with ease."

"Speaking of which, what are we going to do about that bug?" Minamitsu asked. "Are we just going to leave it like that forever?"

"I'm wondering about that too," Byakuren replied. "Such a dangerous creature cannot be let loose into the wild just like that. Perhaps we can train it to not harm other people and keep it as a pet."

"I don't think that's going to be possible, after what we've done to it…" Mamizou said to her.

* * *

Kyouko approached the box that was placed close to the door leading to the storage room and called out to the dragonfly-like creature inside. "Hello? Are you in there?"

There was no reply, so she went up to the box and opened it slightly. The box suddenly shook, and the sound of angry hissing could be heard. The yamabiko hopped back in shock, and then she approached it again. "Don't worry; I'm here to give you something to eat… There's nothing to be afraid of…"

She opened the box again, but the shaking and the hissing once again made her close it and jump back in shock. Telling herself to be brave, Kyouko quickly opened the box slightly, let the contents on the tray slide into it, and then closed it. She sighed with relief that she managed to accomplish this safely, and then she quickly returned to the others.

* * *

It was the afternoon of the next day when Rinnosuke was seated behind the counter, reading newspaper. When he heard the door opening, he looked up from behind the latter and saw Nue and Mamizou coming in. "Oh, welcome!" he said to them. "How may I help you?"

"Hello, Rinnosuke!" Nue said to him while waving. "I've got something to show you today! We're wondering if you can tell us what it is." Then she placed the iPhone-sized device onto the counter.

"What do we have here?" Rinnosuke asked as he leaned towards the object while adjusting his glasses. "This thing… It looks pretty similar to those communication devices that are used commonly by people in the outside world nowadays…"

"I knew you would be reminded of a smartphone," Mamizou said.

Rinnosuke picked up the device and looked at all sides of it. "Where did you find this?"

"The outside world," Nue replied. "Maybe I should tell you the whole story first…"

* * *

Minamitsu was on shopping duty at the Human Village. As she walked down the path with a basket in her hand, she read to herself from a small list. "Onions, carrots, potatoes, pork… All that's left is curry powder…"

She arrived at a store that was selling spices. While looking for curry powder on the shelf, she overheard the conversation of a group of people standing next to the store.

"All I found were their fishing equipments. I searched all around the lake, but I didn't find them at all…"

"Strange… Why would they leave without taking their equipments? I didn't see them after they went fishing… I went their houses this morning, but they aren't home…"

"That guy living across my house went to that lake yesterday as well. He said he was going for a swim."

"Going for a swim at a time like this?! Is he out of his mind?!"

"He's a health nut, so he does intense workouts all the time. He claims that swimming in cold water is good for one's health… Anyway, I didn't see him at all after that."

"He probably froze to death swimming in that lake…"

Minamitsu listened to their conversation with interest, but when the shopkeeper, who was an old woman, asked her what she wanted to buy, she suddenly remembered that she was here to buy curry powder and thus told her what she was looking for.

* * *

After asking several questions regarding the device and looking at it over and over several times, Rinnosuke said to Nue and Mamizou, "Judging from what I heard from you, I believe I can conclude that this is a transportation device of sorts! After all, the only thing you saw it do was creating a portal that brought forth a never-seen-before living thing."

"Yeah, that's what we concluded before we came here…" said Mamizou, sounding unimpressed. "We were hoping that you would find out something we didn't…"

"Thank you so much for the big help…" Nue sarcastically said.

"Perhaps there are other uses to this, but until we find out what they are, it is most definitely a transportation device," Rinnosuke said as he handed the device back to Nue. "Yukari told me that there exist various dimensions and universes out there and that she also witnessed people creating things that allow them to go other dimensions, or at least trying to… Since you found it in the outside world, it's likely that the people there are aware of such dimensions and universes that they want to create something that can help them go to those places.

"I may not be an expert in technology, but I believe that they are without doubt taking a huge step forward in that! Perhaps you should show it to the science department. I'm sure they'll find out more about this than me! They'll surely be interested in what this is, too!"

"Sounds interesting!" Nue said after hearing what he said. "Alternate dimensions and universes… I would love to pay those places a visit! If only I can get this thing to work properly…"

"You said you got it to work when you threw it at the wall, right? As far as I know, no device is supposed to work like that," Rinnosuke said. "Perhaps this thing is faulty."

"Well, I did take it without permission from the place where it's being produced after all…" Nue said.

"Whatever the case is, I'm sure the science department can look into this and find out more about it," Rinnosuke told her.

"I'll decide whether or not to give them myself, but thanks for the suggestion!" Nue said. After that, she left the place with her friend.

While walking down the path that led to the Human Village, Mamizou said to Nue, "Can't exactly say we learned something new, but at least we did hear something interesting. The concept of alternate dimensions and universes is something occasionally seen on science fiction medias. Normally, I wouldn't believe in such a thing existing in real life, but considering that the demon of boundaries herself claims that they do exist…"

"Ichirin also said she went with some others to another dimension via a book." Nue said, and then she looked at the device. "This makes me excited to get this thing working properly! I wonder what sort of fascinating worlds we can visit!"

"Let's just hope that it can take us to more places than where that bug came from…" Mamizou said. "If that thing is an indication of what all living things there are like, then I wouldn't want to go there…"

The two arrived at the village and continued through it to get to the Myouren Temple. While walking past a group of people, they overheard them talking about something that made them curious, so they stopped to listen to their conversation.

"It's true! I really did see a large fish fin sticking out of the water and then going back down!"

"I was with him, so I can testify to this! Even after seeing that fin going underwater, we could clearly tell that there was something moving close to the surface!"

"Really?"

"It's probably just a very big fish."

"I've never seen a fish that big before! I've been to that lake to fish several times, and I only saw it today!"

"Hey, do you think it's possible that the three people who went there today got attacked and eaten by that fish? We haven't seen them at all since they went there…"

"That's what I'm thinking…"

"I think you're thinking too much…"

As the group of people continued to talk about this, Nue's stomach growled. "Feeling hungry, eh?" Mamizou asked her. "C'mon, let's go back to the temple. Lunch is being prepared at the moment, I believe."

They continued making their way through the village, and Nue asked, "Want to go and see that big fish after lunch?"

"You really love to stick your nose into things like these, don't you…?" Mamizou asked her.

"It's fun solving mysteries and going on adventures! I'm that kind of person after all!" Nue replied.

* * *

That afternoon, everyone at the Myouren Temple was having curry for lunch. Like during last night's dinner and this morning's breakfast, Kyouko brought a tray containing food to the dragonfly-like creature. "I brought you lunch," Kyouko said to the bug. When she was close to the box, its top suddenly opened, and the bug flew out. This scared Kyouko so much that she dropped the tray and took several steps back. "How… How did you escape?!"

The bug screeched loudly and then flew at her at a fast speed, but luckily for her, she acted fast and ducked in time. The creature turned around to go after her again, so she quickly threw herself to the side to avoid getting hit. Kyouko sat back up and quickly crawled backwards from the creature until her back was against the wall.

"Stay… Stay back…!" the frightened yamabiko said to the creature. The bug let out another screech before flying at her. In an act of desperation, Kyouko did what she was best at—shouting. "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"

A powerful sound wave was released from her mouth as a result. The bug was pushed back through the air at a very fast speed, and everything that was in the way of the sound wave were either torn to pieces or sent flying towards the wall. Due to being made of wood, the wall was easily torn down by it.

Everyone immediately rushed to where Kyouko was after hearing the incredibly loud cry. "Kyouko! What happened?!" Byakuren asked the yamabiko.

Minamitsu turned to look at the wall that was destroyed and said, "What… What happened here…?"

"Look! It's that bug!" said Nazrin, pointing at the bug, which was seemingly unconscious on the floor.

Everyone turned to look at the bug, and a few seconds later, it got back up and shook its head. It then looked at the residents of the temple and hissed angrily before flying out the nearest window. Minamitsu, Nue, Ichirin, and Mamizou quickly rushed to that window just in time to see that creature disappearing into the distance. "Great… Now a dangerous killer bug is on the loose in Gensokyo…" Mamizou said. "Everybody is totally going to have an awesome day from now on…"

"We better catch that bug before something bad happens…" Minamitsu suggested.

Shou approached the box, picked up one of the ropes inside, and inspected it. She then picked up the other ropes to inspect them. "From the look of it, that bug freed itself by forcefully opening its pincers with a strength strong enough to snap the ropes binding them before using the former to cut the ones binding its wings."

"It must have quite a bit of strength to be able to snap the ropes like that…" Nazrin commented.

"Such strength would make that bug very dangerous…" Byakuren said. "Must as I do not like to take lives, I fear that we have no choice but to put an end to that bug's life. Of course, if there is a deathless alternative, it is a better idea. To me, at least…"

"Well, we can try to use Nue's device to create another portal to send it back," Nazrin told her. "If we can figure out how to get it to work, that is…"

"Didn't she say that the portal appeared when she threw that thing at the wall?" Shou asked. "All we have to do is throw it at the wall again, right?"

"Yeah… However, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to make it create another portal…" Nazrin said. "What if more of its kind comes out from it…?"

"You have a point there…" Shou said.

"Anyway, we'll need to catch that bug right away!" Byakuren said. "Nazrin, I'm sure you can locate it, right?"

"But I'm not good at tracking down living things…" Nazrin told her. "Still, I'll give it a shot."

"We'll definitely track it down and put an end to it, Mistress Hijiri!" Minamitsu said to Byakuren. "Rest assure that it will not be harming anyone today!"

"Right! You can count on us!" Nue said with confidence.

"I'm not sure if I can really track it down in time, so you shouldn't be having too much confidence in your words…" Nazrin told them.

"How would you know if you don't try? Just give it a try already!" Nue told her.

Nazrin let out a sigh and then said, "Okay… but don't blame me if there are no results, okay? I'm really only good at finding small objects…" Then she headed for the outside of the temple and held up her dowsing rods.

Everyone else except for Byakuren and Kyouko, who were still inside the temple, looked at the mouse demon's dowsing rods, hoping to see a result. Nazrin moved towards the left and then walked until she turned around the temple's corner. Everyone followed her in that direction, and in the middle of walking past the temple, she suddenly turned to the right. She took several steps forward and then turned to the left, then to the right, then turning around completely, then to the right, then the left, then turning completely, and then to the right. Basically, she was moving in random directions.

"Um… Have you found anything yet…?" Shou asked her.

Nazrin looked at her with a frustrated expression and said, "Do I look like I found something?!"

"Sorry…" the tiger demon apologized.

"So… it really won't be easy for you to find that bug?" Minamitsu asked her.

"I wouldn't exactly say that I found nothing…" Nazrin replied. "While I didn't pinpoint the exact direction it went to, I at least found out the general direction it went to." She then pointed to four different directions. "Those are the directions that it may have gone to, so we'll have to split into groups if we want to find it fast. I can't be sure that we'll really find it, though, as it is constantly moving…"

"Better than not knowing where to look, right? Great job, Naz!" Nue said to her. "I'll take the leftmost direction!" Then she took off in the direction she chose right away.

"Geez… She sure likes to be in a rush…" Mamizou commented. "I think I'll accompany her to make sure that nothing goes wrong…" Then she went after the nue.

"Unzan and I will take this direction," Ichirin said before heading off in the second leftmost direction with the nyuudo.

Shou and Nazrin chose to take the second rightmost direction, while Minamitsu chose the rightmost direction.

* * *

Despite hearing about the possibility of a large and dangerous fish living in the lake, three men went there and rowed their boat to the center of it, hoping to capture that fish. The oldest-looking of the three, a large, muscular man with a somewhat messy-looking beard, stood at the front part of the boat and looked around the place for signs of anything peculiar. His two companions, while not as muscular, were tough-looking and looked like people one wouldn't want to get on the bad side of.

"C'mon, you giant fish!" the oldest one said out loud. "Whether you're just an overgrown fish or a demon, the greatest fisherman in all of Gensokyo, Daisuke Daishi, is going to capture you and put your dead body on display! If you're the one responsible for eating the previous three people who came here, then you're going to become the main course of a great feast that we're going to hold tonight after capturing you!"

His two companions were in charge of taking care of the large net they let down into the water. They also brought multiple harpoons to use against the "fish".

"I can't wait until that giant fish shows its face!" said one of his companions, who was mostly bald and only had hair at the sides and the back of his head. It was the kind of hairstyle commonly seen among males in feudal Japan.

"Yeah! I'm hoping that it struggles hard!" said the other one, who had the same kind of hairstyle, but he also had an eyepatch covering his left eye. "I love it when the fish I'm trying to catch fights back!"

Suddenly, those two felt and saw the net being tugged, so they quickly pulled it up, but all they caught were a bunch of normal fish. "Bah… Just the ones you see in fish markets…" the one with an eyepatch said.

"Don't pull up the net if it isn't being tugged hard enough!" Daisuke said to them. "If that fish really is a big one, then the tugging should be a lot harder! Use your common sense!"

"Yes, yes…" said the two as they removed the fish from the net and threw them into a basket they brought along.

Unknown to them, something was watching the boat from below while those two were removing the fish. They were just done doing that when suddenly the boat flew into the air a few centimeters, and the man with the eyepatch fell into the water.

SPLASH!

When the boat fell back onto the water, Daisuke asked in surprise, "What was that?!"

The man with the eyepatch emerged from the water, but shortly after that, he was pulled underwater. The other companion saw this and then shouted, "Daiki! Daiki!" The part of the water where the man disappeared underneath was bubbling, but it eventually stopped. "Daiki! Can you hear me?! DAIKI!"

Daisuke looked at where that man was shouting at and said, "It was must be that big fish!" Then he quickly grabbed one of the harpoons. "That monster will pay for claiming my younger brother's life!"

Suddenly, they heard a loud buzzing sound, and when they looked at the sky, they saw the dragonfly-like creature that escaped from the Myouren Temple. "What… What is that?!" Daisuke's remaining companion asked.

The bug let out a screech before flying at that man very fast. Because of its speed, the man wasn't able to react in time, and though he did move to the side, the bug still managed to leave behind a gash on the side of his neck. This was a fatal blow that caused the man to fall backwards off the boat and into the water.

SPLASH!

"DAICHI!" Daisuke gasped upon seeing the death of another companion. He then looked at the bug angrily. "You vile demon! How dare you kill my other brother?! You'll pay dearly for this!"

Just then, Minamitsu arrived in the air close to the lake and saw Daisuke trying to hit the bug with his harpoon, but the latter kept on moving around to avoid getting hit. "There it is!" she said.

When the bug dodged Daisuke's spear again, it quickly flew behind him, latched onto his back, and bit into his neck hard, causing him to scream in pain. Seeing this, Minamitsu quickly rushed in their direction to save that man. Suddenly, a large creature came out of the water behind them and caused her to stop in her track in surprise, but those two failed to notice this.

Its massive mouth came down on top Daisuke and the bug, devouring them both and the middle section of the boat. The creature that devoured those two went back into the water, and its tail, which was that of a fish's, could be seen just before it disappeared underwater.

For several seconds, Minamitsu stared at the lake with her eyes and mouth wide open. When she snapped out of her state of shock, she quickly flew towards the lake and went underwater. To avoid being seen, she changed into water to basically become invisible. She looked around for whatever it was that just devoured Daisuke and the bug, but she didn't see anything that was big enough to do so.

Minamitsu returned to the surface and floated into the air. "What… What was that just now?" she wondered.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Nue was referring to one of my stories, Deep, Dark Dangers, when she said Ichirin went to another dimension before via a book.

Three named OCs here, and all three of them are dead… Yeah, really only OCs will be dying in my Touhou series, unless I allow an exception, but rest assure that I'm not going to make any Touhou characters die. Also, those three OCs are brothers. Daisuke is the eldest, and the two younger ones are twins.

I also hope that you know what kind of hairstyle I'm talking about that men of feudal Japan commonly have… I can't find a good way to describe it properly…


	3. Face of the Lake's Demon

**Chapter 3  
Face of the Lake's Demon**

* * *

"A dangerous demon living in Fishermen's Lake?" Reimu curiously said after hearing what Keine told her.

Keine nodded and then said, "Yes… Three people went missing after going there since yesterday, and then there were reports of what was believed to be a larger than usual fish in that lake. The Daishi Brothers, who are the best fishermen in the village, went there to catch that fish. When someone went there later, he found pieces of their boat floating on the water, and there were no signs of those three, too…"

"So… you're basically saying that all those people were killed by this… fish demon, and you want me to go and exterminate it, right?" Reimu asked.

"Why else do you think I came to you? After all, exterminating demons is one of your jobs," Keine said. "However, considering that the culprit resides underwater, I was wondering if this would be tougher than usual for you to handle…"

"Won't know until I try…" Reimu told her. "I was hoping to spend the winter peacefully… It's hard to get worked up when there is snow out there… Anyway, I'll go and take a look at things in a short while. In the meantime, tell people not to go to that lake."

"I'm glad that you're willing to help!" Keine said. "I'll do what you say and tell everyone to refrain from going there."

* * *

Back at the Myouren Temple, Minamitsu told everyone else about what she witnessed at the lake. "But I didn't see anything underwater at all… There was nothing that was the same size as the one that devoured that man and the bug…" said Minamitsu, concluding her report.

The others had their mouths wide open after hearing everything Minamitsu said. "Such a demon resides in that lake…?" Byakuren said. "I never knew that…"

"I've never heard of a demon like that residing in Fisherman's Lake…" Shou said. "Humans go there often to catch fish, so if what you said is true, then reports of that demon should've existed long ago…"

"Maybe that demon only reached maturity recently and thus decided to make itself known now?" Nazrin said.

"Should we do something about this, Mistress Hijiri?" Minamitsu asked Byakuren. "Letting such a dangerous demon like that living in that lake… Lots of lives are going to be lost if more people go there…"

"You're right… We cannot allow that demon to do as it pleases," Byakuren said. "I'm sure the Hakurei shrine maiden must've heard about this already, so she will surely do something about it. Even so, I believe we should do something about this as well. We wish to strengthen the bond between humans and demons, and letting a demon like that on the loose can worsen such a bond. Since none of us here are humans, I believe we can strengthen the bond even more if we contribute to the fall of that dangerous demon. Of course, if it possible to reason with that demon and learn why it does that, we can try to convince it to stop eating humans and seek a better diet!"

Everyone gave her a weird look after hearing the last phrase, and Ichirin eventually broke the silence. "If only things can be that easy…"

* * *

Like she said she would, Reimu arrived at Fishermen's Lake, despite not feeling in the mood to go outside and do things. Standing at the edge of the lake, she looked around the surface to find whatever was peculiar, and the only thing that could be considered like that were the pieces of the boat used by the Daishi Bros.

She then walked alongside the edge of the lake, continuing to scan for other peculiar things, not to mention hoping to see the "fish demon" swimming close to the surface. After walking for a bit, she stopped and placed her hand underneath her chin. "How am I going to deal with something that lives underwater and refuses to show itself?" she said in her head. "It's not like I can hold my breath and go down there to look for it… Plus, my amulets won't be of use when underwater. At least they can't be thrown around like when in the air…"

Thinking that flying to the center of the lake was a better idea if she wanted to make more progress in finding something, Reimu did just that. Once in the air above the center of the lake, she looked down to once again to scan for anything big underwater.

While she was doing so, she heard someone calling out to her, so she turned to the side and saw Minamitsu flying over to her. "What are you doing?" the ship ghost asked her.

"I'd ask you the same thing…" Reimu said to her. "I thought I told Keine to tell everyone in the village not to come here."

"My temple isn't situated in the village, you know…" Minamitsu reminded her. "Anyway, I'm here to look for a… demon of some kind. I assume that you heard about it and thus came here to see if you can do anything about it?"

"So you know about this fish demon too?" Reimu asked her. "Yeah, Keine came and told me about it. Apparently, everyone in the village was scared after hearing that the best fishermen there were supposedly killed by it…"

"I know that at least one of them was devoured by it…" Minamitsu told her. "I saw it with my own eyes when I was here…"

Surprised, Reimu asked her, "You were here when you saw it?!"

"Yes," Minamitsu replied with a nod. "You see… We were… Um… Chasing a dangerous insect demon in order to keep it from causing harm to people… I found it attacking a fisherman here, but when I was going to do something about it, that demon in the water jumped out and swallowed them both…"

"Hold on a second… An insect demon?" Reimu asked.

"They do exist, you know…" Minamitsu told her, not wanting to reveal the truth about where that dragonfly-like creature came from. The shrine maiden nodded when she remembered that insect demons do exist, so she stopped thinking about it. "Anyway, I went back and told the others about it, and Mistress Hijiri thinks that this demon living in the water is too dangerous for its own good and that something should be done about it. Since I'm the only one in the group who can travel around freely and breathe under water, I volunteered to look into this." Then she pointed to the side.

Reimu looked at where she was pointing at and saw that the rest of the residents of the Myouren Temple except Kyouko were standing at the edge of the lake. "So they're all standing by for the demon's app…" Before she could finish speaking, a dark blue tentacle shot out of the water and caught her left leg. "What the?!"

The tentacle quickly pulled her towards the water, but the shrine maiden flew up with all her strength to prevent that from happening. Seeing this, Minamitsu quickly flew at the tentacle and swung her anchor at it as hard as she could to make it let go of Reimu.

"Thanks…" Reimu said while breathing heavily and recovering from the shock of being caught.

"It must be that demon!" Minamitsu said. "I didn't see tentacles when it devoured that fisherman and the insect demon, however. In fact, I didn't even see the demon in its entirety…"

"How am I supposed to deal with something that is in somewhere I can't get to?!" Reimu asked in frustration.

"I'll go underwater to check it out," Minamitsu said. "Since I'm a ghost and have an intangible body, I have no fear of being attacked by it." After saying that, she dived underwater.

At the edge, the residents of the temple saw what happened just now. "There goes Minamitsu…" Byakuren said. "Let's hope she'll be all right…"

"She'll definitely be all right," Shou assured her. "After all, she's a ghost, so she can't die a second time."

"We'll have to be ready for that demon's reappearance," Byakuren told her followers. "When it shows up again, we'll head over to it and give it all we've got!"

"Yes, Mistress Hijiri!" said Shou, Nue, and Ichirin.

* * *

Underwater, Minamitsu looked in all directions for where the demon was, but there was nothing at all. "It's just like that time…" she said to herself. "It's nowhere in sight at all!"

While still looking around, a gaping mouth lined with massive, sharp teeth appeared behind her. The ship ghost felt the presence of something behind her, so when she turned around and found herself looking into the mouth, she quickly moved back just before the mouth closed with her inside it. When the mouth closed, it disappeared.

"It… It disappeared?!" she said in her head.

Suddenly, the gaping mouth reappeared in front of her. The ship ghost quickly swam to the side before it closed down on her again and then quickly turned to see the demon, but before she could get a clear look at it, it disappeared the moment the mouth closed. "It disappeared again?! Does it have the ability to turn invisible?!"

Suddenly, she felt something grabbing her leg and was then pulled forward. "Whoa!" The gaping mouth appeared for the third time, and at the same time, she could see her leg being caught and pulled towards it by a tentacle. Acting quick, Minamitsu turned herself into water to slip away from the tentacle's grasp before she was thrown into the mouth. Like before, the demon disappeared when the mouth closed.

Minamitsu quickly flew back out of the water and met with Reimu. "What happened down there?" Reimu asked her. "I kept on seeing something big appearing and then disappearing shortly afterwards!"

"Looks like that demon is capable of turning invisible…" Minamitsu said. "I almost got eaten by it thrice…"

"Turn invisible? Great… As if living out of my reach isn't bad enough…" Reimu grumbled.

All of a sudden, a large gush of water shot out from the surface and hit the girls, dousing them and pushing them higher up into the air. "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" Reimu screamed as she got pushed up. When the gush of water disappeared, the girls fell back down and eventually came to a stop. Their bodies were reddish and in pain all over. "What was that hot water just now?!"

Another gush of water was fired at them, but they managed to avoid it this time. Drops of water rained back down on them, and though they were small, their boiling temperature was more than enough to make the girls cry in pain.

"Is this the demon's doing?!" Minamitsu asked.

"Ugh… My whole body is in pain… Ow…" Reimu cried. "Even during a cold weather, this temperature is way too much!"

Yet another gush of water was fired, this time in a diagonal trajectory. The girls got out of its way, and then Minamitsu turned to the direction the water was fired to see that it was heading in the temple residents' direction. "EVERYONE! WATCH OUT!" she shouted at them.

Seeing the water falling towards them, Byakuren and her followers quickly flew into the air to avoid it. When the water hit the snow on the ground, the latter immediately melted and filled the place with steam. "Whoa! That water must be really hot!" Nue commented.

"Good thing we didn't get hit by it…" Mamizou said. "It looks like it can boil meat!"

Minamitsu and Reimu flew to where they were, and the former asked, "Is everyone all right?"

"Everyone is all right. What about the both of you?" Byakuren asked them.

"Scorched all over by hot water…" Reimu replied.

"There's something approaching us!" said Nazrin, pointing at a massive figure that could be seen moving towards the land from underwater. Everyone turned to look at what she was pointing at, and then the massive figure stopped and sank underwater a bit. Shortly after that, a massive gush of water was shot in their direction, but they dodged it. Like before, the snow melted when the water fell on it.

"What is this demon?!" Shou asked.

"I don't know, but we're about to find out!" Byakuren said. "It may be underwater, but we can still fire projectiles into it to hurt it! Shou! Use your pagoda against it!"

"As you say, Mistress Hijiri!" Shou said as she took out her miniature pagoda. The pagoda glowed brightly for a few seconds, and then a rather large beam was fired into the water and struck the demon that was down there. Sparks could be seen flying out from the creature when the beam came in contact with it, and it seemed to shook in pain as well.

"It appears to be working!" Byakuren said. "Fire again, Shou!"

"The pagoda cannot fire a beam that size for another thirty seconds, but I'll fire smaller ones in a large quantity at it instead!" Shou said. She was going to fire, but then they saw the demon turning around and swimming away.

"It's getting away! After it!" Byakuren said, and she went after it with her followers.

"Wait! Don't be so reckless!" Reimu called out to them.

The temple residents followed the demon to the center of the lake, where it dived deeper into the lake until it was no longer visible. Looking at the spot where the demon "disappeared", Byakuren told Nazrin to try to catch it with her pendulum.

"Are you kidding me?! Something the size of that is going to pull me down right away if I catch it!" the mouse demon told her.

"Don't worry; I'll help you pull it up using my strength-enhancing magic!" Byakuren told her as she took out her scroll used for the purpose she mentioned.

"You better be sure that it's a good idea…" Nazrin said before taking out a crystal pendulum. She was about to throw it into the water when they all noticed something coming to the surface.

With its mouth wide open, the demon leaped out of the water in an attempt to catch all of the temple residents with it, but they all got out of the way in time. When they turned to see the creature, it fell back into the water before they could get a clear look at it. The only thing they saw clearly was a fish tail.

"Nazrin! Now!" Byakuren shouted at the mouse demon, and the latter quickly threw her pendulum that was attached to a chain at where the demon fell into. Shortly after the pendulum went underwater, it caught something, which resulted in Nazrin being pulled downwards. Byakuren quickly rushed over to the chain, caught it, and pulled it with all her might. "Everyone! Fire at it!"

"Yes!" everyone else except for Nazrin and Minamitsu shouted. Shou used her pagoda to fire several laser beams that moved in curvy paths, Ichirin swung both her rings multiples times to fire several energy rings, Unzan attacked with a pair of eye beams, Nue fired several beams from the tip of her wings, and Mamizou created and sent forth frogs made of blue energy lines.

While the demon was getting hit, the chain that Nazrin and Byakuren were holding onto kept on moving, as the demon was struggling to break free from it.

"I'll go down there to deal with it!" Minamitsu said to her superior before flying headfirst into the water.

When she turned to look at the demon down there, she didn't see anything at all, but she did see the projectiles hitting something invisible. Also, Nazrin's pendulum could be seen binding the part that was likely its tail. "Looks like this creature really can turn invisible!" she thought. "But with a size like this, hitting it shouldn't be a problem!"

Raising her anchor over her head, the ship ghost shouted, "Capsize: Sinking Anchor!" Then she threw it with all her might at the invisible demon. When the demon was hit, it opened its mouth to let out a cry of pain, and it was at this moment did it become visible, long enough for Minamitsu to get a clear look at what it looked like.

It was a monstrous-looking fish without visible eyes. A pair of bull-like horns pointing forward was growing out of its head, and there were five pairs of spikes curving inwards lined alongside the dorsal fin. Its pectoral fins were large and somewhat resembled hands. Perhaps the most bizarre thing about it was that it had four pairs of tentacles longer than itself arranged next to each other on both sides of its body.

"What… What kind of demon is this?!" the ship ghost said in shock.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

A picture of the "fish demon" has been posted on my Twitter account, so please head over there via my profile to see how it looks like and how big it is.


	4. Never Seen or Heard of Before

**Chapter 4  
Never Seen or Heard of Before**

* * *

Minamitsu looked at the fish demon in all its glory with wide open eyes and mouth. Even though she had seen several kinds of bizarre deep sea creatures while she was still bound to the ocean centuries before, she had never seen something as bizarre as this. For several seconds, she stared at the monster as it struggled to break free from Nazrin's chain without saying anything.

After a few more seconds of struggling, the monster grabbed the chain with some of its tentacles, but it reached some of them out of the water.

Those tentacles came out of the water and headed for Byakuren, and one of them caught the magician's feet. Though she saw it coming, she was unable to react in time, because it came to her at a relatively fast speed. The magician was quickly pulled underwater. Nazrin quickly let go of the chain before she got pulled down too far and then shouted in horror, "MISTRESS HIJIRI!"

Minamitsu saw her master being pulled underwater, so she immediately swam to her rescue. Striking that tentacle hard with her anchor, Minamitsu managed to make the monster let go of Byakuren, and then she carried her by her own shoulder and swam for the surface. When they both emerged from the water, the others quickly rushed over to them. "Mistress Hijiri! You're all right!" Shou said in relief and joy.

"Great going, Minamitsu!" Nue said as she slapped the ship ghost's back.

"No time to celebrate just yet!" Minamitsu said as she turned to look at the water. "That demon may come back up again!"

They looked at the water for several seconds and waited for the monster to make its return, but it never did. Reimu flew up to them and said, "I'm supposed to be the one fighting that demon, but I got left out instead!"

"That's because you didn't come over here to do something yourself…" Mamizou said to her.

Reimu cursed under her breath and then looked at the water. "So… is that demon still going to show up again?"

"Strange… It's not coming back up…" Minamitsu said. "Did it give up?"

"Guess it finally realized that it's no match for us!" Nue said. "That'll teach it to eat people again!"

"I can't say that we managed to defeat it… but for now, let's leave it at this," Byakuren suggested.

"Normally, I'm not fond of taking a break in the middle of solving an incident, but… this pain is killing me, so I think I should take a break first…" Reimu cried while looking at her burned hand. "Ow…"

"Me too… That water fired at us is really hot…" Minamitsu said while looking at her arm. "I may be a ghost, but because I can change into water, hot water is painful for me to come in contact with…"

* * *

No sooner after deciding to end the battle against the monstrous fish, the entire group went over to Eientei to get Reimu and Minamitsu treated.

"Second-degree burn, but it's not extremely severe," said Eirin while holding up Reimu's arm and inspecting its skin. "I have an ointment used for treating burns. That should make your skin look and feel better again."

"You sure have medicines and ointments for everything, don't you…?" Reimu asked her.

"Most of them," the Lunarian doctor said as she got up and headed over to a cabinet. "You'll never know what sort of problems your patients will have, so you need to have everything prepared. As long as my patients aren't dead, I have confidence in restoring them back to perfect condition."

As Reimu watched Eirin search for the ointment she mentioned in the cabinet, Minamitsu, who was sitting on a chair next to her, said to her, "Good thing we've got a great doctor like her here, eh? It's unheard of for there to be a doctor who can treat ghosts!"

"Yeah, Eirin is indeed talented," Reimu said with a nod. "Thanks to her, many lives in Gensokyo have been saved." Then she realized something. "Wait a minute, if she cannot treat dead people, then how can she treat you?"

"I can't bring them back to life, but I can still treat them," Eirin told the shrine maiden as she approached her with a small jar.

"Do dead people need treating…?" Reimu asked.

"Look next to you…" Minamitsu told her.

* * *

When she was done, Akyu put down her paintbrush and then held up the paper to show the residents of the Myouren Temple and Reimu the drawing of the monster. "Is this how it looks like?" she asked.

After leaving Eientei, the group went over to Akyu, hoping that she would know something about the monster. Since Minamitsu was the only who got a good look at the monster, she described to Akyu how it looked like and had her draw a picture of it. The ship ghost only looked at the picture for about two seconds before nodding and confirming that it was indeed what she saw.

"Wow… That's one ferocious-looking fish…" Nazrin commented. "Never seen anything like that before…"

"Same here…" Reimu said. "And I thought I know what all the demons living in Gensokyo are…"

Akyu looked at the picture herself and said, "I've never seen a demon like this before too… I've never even read or heard about something like this… But then, my knowledge of demons is really only restricted to those living in Japan, so maybe it's actually a demon from outside of Japan…"

"Can't say I know what this is as well…" Mamizou said. "I know a lot of creatures that people in the outside world usually believe don't exist, but this… Never seen or heard of anything like it before…"

"I'll go and ask Kosuzu to see if she has seen this kind of demon in any of her books," Akyu suggested.

"We can also ask Yukari and the folks from the Moriya Shrine," Ichirin suggested. "They all have vast knowledge of the outside world, so I'm sure at least one of them knows about this demon."

"Good idea!" Byakuren said. "We need to get all the information we can about it if we want to stop it from causing any more trouble."

"I'll draw another picture of it," Akyu said as she picked up her paintbrush and dipped it into an ink tray. "That way, you can split into two groups to get the job done faster."

* * *

After Akyu was done drawing the second picture, the temple residents went over to the Moriya Shrine to gather information on the monster, while Reimu went to Mayohiga to ask Yukari.

To Reimu's surprise, the demon of boundaries shook her head and said that she never saw a demon like this before. "What?! You really never saw something like this in all your travels?!"

"Nope," Yukari assured her. "I've traveled to many places in the outside world and even to other dimensions, but I've never seen anything like this before. To be fair, I've only traveled to a few dimensions. There are still a lot out there I haven't visited yet, so maybe this demon resides in one of them."

"Well, then I hope you can figure out where it came from…" Reimu said. "Speaking of different dimensions… If this demon really is from another dimension, then what is it doing here in Gensokyo?" Then she stared at the demon of boundaries.

Yukari looked at her and said, "You're not trying to accuse me of bringing it here, are you? I admit that I like to tease people and cause a bit of trouble when I'm bored, but I would never go as far as to cause one that would harm the residents of Gensokyo and Gensokyo itself! Bringing in a demon that eats people is something I would never do! We already have demons here that prey on humans, so there's no need to bring in more!"

"Let's hope that's the case…" Reimu said.

* * *

The answer from the folks at the Moriya Shrine was the same—they have never seen a demon like this before. Byakuren still thanked them for trying to help out, and then the temple residents left the shrine to go back to their place for the time being.

"No luck… I hope the Hakurei shrine maiden got a better result than us…" Byakuren said while leading the way in the air.

"Somehow, I have the feeling that she got the same answer as us…" Nazrin said.

While on their way back the temple, Nue suddenly said, "You know… I've been thinking about something…"

Mamizou heard her and asked, "What is it?"

"Minamitsu said that the demon doesn't have eyes, and I just remembered that the bug that came out of the portal created by that device I found in the outside world doesn't have eyes either…" Nue replied.

Realizing the point she was trying to make, Mamizou asked her, "You saying that the fish demon came to this place using the same method, aren't you?" When the others heard this, they stopped and turned to face the tanuki and the nue.

"Um… That's just a theory…" Nue said with a nod.

"So that fish demon came from the same place as that bug?" Shou asked.

"Well, that would explain its ferociousness…" Nazrin said. "Looks like everything from that bug's homeland is dangerous…"

"Makes sense if you think about it…" Minamitsu said. "That fish demon showed up all of a sudden, and nobody has heard of it before… Nue, did you create a portal using that device while on your way back to the temple?"

Nue thought for a while and then remembered something. "I think I know when that demon showed up! Remember what I said about the device creating a portal when I threw it at the wall? While on the way back to the temple, I accidentally dropped the device while in the air. After that, Mamizou and I came down to look for it. A portal may have been created when it hit the ground that time."

"I just remembered something too!" Mamizou said. "I found the device on a rock right next to the river. Is it possible that the device created a portal when it fell there, and that fish demon came out of the portal and fell into the river right away? From there, that demon swam all the way to Fisherman's Lake. That river is connected to that lake after all. This actually makes sense!"

Everyone was silent after hearing Mamizou's explanation of the monster's origin. Everyone then turned to Nue, and Ichirin said, "If that it's true, then you sure brought back one heck of a device…"

"Um… Sorry…" Nue said with guilt.

"It's all right," Byakuren said as she flew over to Nue and placed her hand on her shoulder. "You had no idea what that thing was. Still, let it be a lesson to you for stealing and bringing back unknown objects. Make sure that you never do something like this again."

"I'm very sorry, Mistress Hijiri…" said Nue. Tears slowly came out from the corner of her eyes. "I brought back something that made the people here lost their lives… It's my fault that this happened…"

Everyone looked at Nue in silence as she cried more and more, and then Nazrin said, "So… now that we have a possible explanation for that demon's origin, what do we do now?"

"If trying to kill it is too hard, then we can try to send it back to where it came from," Minamitsu suggested. "That would require getting that device to create a portal, and we still don't know how that thing exactly works, not to mention the risks of creating another portal…"

Deciding that they should quickly go and retrieve that device, the group continued heading in their temple's direction, and that was when they saw some tengus and kappas flying in their direction. "Good afternoon!" the tengu in lead, Aya, greeted.

"Good afternoon!" Byakuren politely greeted back. "Where are you heading? You have quite a few people with you, so I presume that it has to do with work?"

Ayas nodded. "Yep! We're on our way to Fisherman's Lake to investigate this demon that is reported to be living there and has taken lives! We're going to find out what that demon really is and perhaps try to see if we can do something about it. The kappas here brought some equipments that they believe will help locate that demon and hopefully capture it, and we tengus are going to record everything!"

"You're going to capture that demon?!" Minamitsu said in surprise. "It's very dangerous! You may lose your lives!"

"A reporter has to take risks and step into dangerous territories if he wants to reveal the truth to the world, and I'm the kind of person willing to take that risk!" Aya told her. "Plus, it's not like we're a bunch of helpless girls who cannot do anything against dangers, so you can be sure that we'll capture that monster on camera and also put it inside a cage or something like that! Anyway, we're excited to start this fast, so we're on our way! Wish us luck!" With that, Aya and her group flew in the direction of Fisherman's Island.

The temple residents watched them fly off into the distance, and then Shou said, "I think we should've told them that we encountered that demon. It's probably better than to make them go there to satisfy their curiosity at the risk of their lives…"

"Actually, I prefer not to get bombarded by tons of questions by Aya…" Nazrin said.

Ichirin turned to Byakuren and asked her, "What do we do now, Mistress Hijiri?"

"Being diligent with work is good, but putting yourself in danger for the sake of it isn't always worth it… We should head back to the temple and get that device fast," Byakuren suggested. "Hopefully, we can make it to the lake before anything bad happens…" So the group quickly returned to the temple.

* * *

Aya and her group arrived at Fisherman's Lake, and the kappas immediately went to set up the equipments necessary for seeking out the monster. One of them set up a laptop, and then another took out a robotic sea turtle from a backpack. After opening a part of it and pressing the buttons there, she put the turtle onto the water surface, and then it swam off a few feet before going underwater.

The kappa sitting in front of the laptop turned on a program that allowed her to see whatever the robotic sea turtle was seeing. Aya approached the laptop and looked at it. "Hope you can find something using this!"

"Don't worry," the kappa told her. "The Sea Turtloid 2000 can switch between various forms of vision to seek out anything that is well hidden. It is equipped with various forms of sensors that allow it to detect oddities in water currents and sounds too! Nothing can escape this thing's sight!"

"Good to know that! Let's hope it finds that demon soon!" Aya said.

While the kappa in front of the laptop stared at the screen, the others looked at the lake and hoped to find something. Three tengus scanned the lake by flying around above it.

While looking at the screen, the kappa in front of the laptop noticed something. "There are almost no fishes in the lake," she said in her head. "Perhaps that demon ate them all…" Suddenly, the footage of the turtle's vision shook, as if it bumped into something. "Eh? What happened just now?"

When she heard this, Aya went over to the kappa and asked, "What? Did you find something just now?"

"Don't know… The footage shook…" the kappa told her. "Looks like something hit it… I'm letting it look at its surroundings to see what hit it." Using a controller that resembled a video game controller, she made the turtle look in all directions for whatever it was that bumped into it earlier, but she didn't find anything. "Nothing… Guess it swam away already…"

"Probably just a fist that tried to eat it, but then realized that it isn't edible," Aya said.

"Even if whatever touched it swam away already, I should be able to see it swimming off into the distance, but I didn't see anything at all…" the kappa said. "It's as if something invisible bumped into it… Speaking of invisibility… Maybe I should switch its vision to a mode that allows it to detect invisible objects." Then she pressed a button on the controller that made the footage gray, black, and white.

When she made the turtle look behind itself, she saw a massive figure swimming away from it. "I see something!" the kappa said in surprise. "It… It appears to be heading in our direction!"

"Really?!" Aya said in surprise as she turned to look at the lake.

Suddenly, a tentacle came out of the water and caught the kappa that dropped the Sea Turtloid 2000 into the lake. She was pulled into the water before she could finish questioning what it was. The others saw this, and they were shocked at the sight of it.

"Nanako!" Aya gasped as she ran towards the edge of the lake. A tentacle came out again to grab the tengu, but she acted fast and flew into the air. "Whoa! The demon has shown itself, has it?!"

The same tentacle that tried to grab Aya rose into the air and then slammed down onto her, but she got out of the way. The kappa in front of the laptop was in its way, however, so she quickly ran out of the way with her laptop to avoid getting smashed by it.

The three tengus flew towards the tentacle, and suddenly, three more tentacles came out to catch their legs. Two of them were caught and instantly pulled into the water, but one managed to avoid it in time. "Aisa! Kameko!" that tengu gasped in horror.

The same tentacle that tried to catch her reached up and managed to catch her leg this time. Aya quickly rushed over to her and caught her hands and pulled her upwards as hard as she could. "I won't let it get you!" Aya said to her.

"I'm… I'm going to get ripped apart…" that tengu cried.

Another tentacle suddenly came out and caught Aya, and then both tengus were pulled underwater. "AYA! KARA!" the kappa with the laptop gasped in horror upon seeing this.

Underwater, Kara and Aya continued to struggle to break free from the tentacles, and despite their natural strengths as a tengu, they were unable to force the tentacles apart, as the monster had larger strength than them. Aya turned to look at the monster and was shocked at the monstrous-looking fish she saw before her eyes. The monster brought those two closer and closer to its mouth and then opened it to get ready to devour them, and the closer they were to the mouth, the more they struggled.

Suddenly, Minamitsu shot into the water like a rocket and slammed her anchor into the tentacle binding Aya, forcing the monster to let go of the tengu in pain. The ship ghost then turned to the tentacle binding Kara and hurled her anchor at it to make it let go of her. The two tengus quickly swam out of the water for air afterwards.

"Phew… That was close! Thanks goodness that ship ghost from the Myouren Temple showed up in time to rescue us!" Aya said.

The rest of the temple residents except Kyouko showed up in the air, and Byakuren asked those two, "Is everyone all right?"

Aya and Kara flew into the air to meet them, and the former replied, "Lost three of our members… One of your disciples saved us both in time, however."

"It's unfortunate to hear that you lost three of your members…" Byakuren said with a look of pity. "Don't worry; rest assure that we will not allow this to happen again, for we have a plan to make that demon leave this place once and for all!"

* * *

Underwater, the monster turned around and glared at Minamitsu, angry at her for what she did just now. The ship ghost glared back and said, "Bring it! I'm not afraid of you!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I originally intended for the monster to resemble the one found in the Korean horror/monster film, The Host, but I kept on changing its design until I settled with the current one. It was after posting the previous chapter and a picture of it did I realize that it resembles the fighting fish found in the latest arc of One Piece…

Also, the Kara here is the same one from Evil By Nature.


	5. Begone, Monster!

**SBS Time!  
JakeCrusher: **Are you going to start more Smasher stories after this?  
**Game2002: **That series is on hiatus until, perhaps, after the fourth installment is out.

**Final Chapter  
Begone, Monster!**

* * *

"Take this! Capsize: Sinking Anchor!" Minamitsu shouted as she raised her anchor over her head before throwing it at the monster, but it used its tentacle to swat it away. The monster than reached forth the same tentacle to grab her, but she quickly swam out of its way.

Reaching out her hand to the anchor, it changed into water and then returned to her hand before changing back to normal. The monster reached two of its tentacles at her, but with powerful swings of her anchor, she knocked them back and made the monster grunt in pain a little. The monster then charged at her with its mouth wide open, and the ship ghost simply got out of its way before throwing her anchor at the side of its body.

The monster angrily turned to her and swung its tentacles at her over and over, but she managed to avoid every single hit with ease by constantly swimming around. She eventually used her anchor to block another tentacle strike, and the force of its impact against her weapon caused her to be pushed back several feet. The monster then turned invisible, which made the ship ghost raise her awareness.

The monster's massive mouth reappeared in front of her all of a sudden, but she acted fast enough and swam to the side to avoid getting caught in it when it closed. Quickly turning around, Minamitsu threw her anchor at the monster just as it was disappearing. After hitting the monster, who still became invisible, the anchor returned to Minamitsu. Suddenly, she was struck in the side by an invisible force and was sent flying away quite a bit of a distance.

Shortly after she came to a stop, Minamitsu felt herself being bound by something. The monster reappeared with its mouth open in front of her, but she was able to slip out of the tentacle binding her by turning into water. She swam away from the monster and said in her head, "It seems that every time it opens its mouth, it will become visible again. Seems like it can only maintain its invisibility when its mouth is closed…"

* * *

Nue was hitting the device with the back of her hand and occasionally hammering it against her palm. She was trying to get the device to work, but her efforts had been futile so far. "C'mon! C'mon, you useless device! Open up a portal already!" she said in frustration. "We need you to get working right now, and you just have to be useless at a time like this!"

"Try throwing it again," Nazrin suggested. "Maybe that'll do something."

"That's what I did earlier, didn't I? I threw it at the ground, but nothing happened!" Nue reminded her.

"Do it again!" Nazrin told her. "Maybe something will happen this time!"

"Excuse me… May I please look at that?" the only kappa left asked Nue.

Nue looked at her and said, "You want to look at this? Oh yeah, kappas are good when it comes to technology, so maybe you can find out how to get this thing to work!" So she handed the device to her.

The kappa inspected all sides of the device and then said, "This thing resembles a smartphone found in the outside world, but there are no screen and ports…"

"Ports? Now that you said it… I didn't see any ports for inserting cables of any kind into it as well…" Mamizou said.

"Where did you find this?" the kappa asked Nue.

"At the outside world, inside a place where they make high-tech stuff," the nue replied.

"So it's an invention of the outside world? Never seen something like this before… Guess it must be very new…" the kappa said as she inspected all sides of the device again. "You said it is capable of opening portals, right?"

"That's the only thing I saw it do, other than giving off light from those lines and circles on one side of it…" Nue told her.

"Incredible… I didn't know that the humans of the outside world are capable of creating something like this…" the kappa said in disbelief. "Even we kappas aren't smart enough to create something like this!"

"Looks like the kappas are getting left behind when it comes to technology!" Aya commented.

"Nitori wouldn't like what you said…" the kappa said when she heard that.

"Can you get it to work?" Nue asked the kappa.

"If only I know how this thing works…" the kappa said while looking at the device. "There are no buttons on it either… In fact, there's nothing on it that can give anyone an idea on how it works!"

The kappa was going to say something when she suddenly heard a voice coming from her laptop. She looked at it to see that it was Minamitsu looking at the Sea Turtloid 2000's "camera". "Are you done up there yet?" she desperately asked. "At least try to help me in some way to incapacitate this monster!"

"Don't worry! The Sea Turtloid 2000 can do something like that!" the kappa said with confidence. She quickly picked up the controller and had it face the monster, which was moving in its direction. "Behold its high voltage electric beam! Eat this, ugly!" She pressed a button that caused the robotic turtle to open its mouth and fire a beam of electricity at the monster. Despite the small stature of the turtle, the size of the beam was rather big.

The monster let out a loud and painful cry when the electricity struck it in the front and zapped it badly, not to mention stopping it in its track. When the turtle finished firing the beam, the monster was seemingly knocked out of consciousness, as it floated in place motionlessly.

"Yeah!" exclaimed the kappa. "How'd you like that? Don't underestimate the power of electricity when it's underwater! Water conducts electricity, which is why I designed the Sea Turtloid 2000 with that kind of weapon. It's very effective against all livings things when they're underwater!"

The monster woke up again and shook its head, and then it let out an angry roar before swinging one of its tentacles at the robotic turtle, sending it hurtling through the water until it hit a wall.

CRASH!

With that, the footage on the laptop disappeared. "My Sea Turtloid 2000! It's destroyed!" the kappa gasped.

"I take that this is a bad thing, right?" Aya asked.

Minamitsu came out of the water and flew towards them. "Your robotic turtle got destroyed!" she said to the kappa.

"I know that already…" the kappa told her. "It's my favorite creation as well…"

"Anyway, how's the device?" Minamitsu asked. "Fighting that demon isn't important. What's important is to get that device to work!"

"Then going down there to confront it just now was pointless, don't you think?" Nazrin asked her.

"I doubt the demon would enter a portal attentively, so weakening it first or knocking it out and then sending it in there is my plan," the ship ghost told her.

Suddenly, the monster came to the surface and let out a roar that made everyone turned to it. It reached its tentacle in their direction and tried to hit them with it, but they all got out of the way by moving back or flying into the air.

The monster then grabbed one of the trees growing close to the lake and ripped it off the ground with ease before hurling it at some of the girls who escaped into the air, but they managed to dodge it as well. Aya watched the tree falling into the distance and said, "Whoa… That's quite a strength it got there… Good thing it landed somewhere that has no one, I think…"

Steam started to come out of the monster's mouth, and then a large stream of boiling water was fired from there and in the direction of the girls, but they managed to avoid it as well. However, they were forced to avoid it again when the monster moved the stream of water in their direction.

"Don't touch that water!" Minamitsu shouted. "It's boiling hot! I got second-degree burn from touching it!"

When the monster stopped the attack, Byakuren flew down on top of its head and stabbed it with an energy sword produced from her vajra. The monster let out a painful roar and then raised its body into the air in to make the magician fall off. Byakuren backed away from the monster and then hurled her vajra like a lance at it. "Virudhaka's Sword!" The "lance" stabbed the monster in a part close to where the previous wound was and stopped just at the vajra.

Enraged, the monster turned towards the magician and went after her. Noticing her vajra falling into the water, Byakuren used magic to allow herself to move at a fast speed to zoom over to it and pick it up before getting away from the monster. The monster swung its tentacle at her, and using her vajra as a sword, Byakuren sliced it. The monster tried to hit her with another tentacle, only to get it cut off as well.

"Mistress Hijiri is doing a great against that demon!" Ichirin commented.

"You can do it, Mistress Hijiri!" Shou loudly said to her.

Realizing that it wasn't safe to attack with its tentacles, the monster decided to stop using them and think of another way to close in on Byakuren for the kill. It dived underwater, and the magician looked down at where it dived into and said, "Hiding won't do you any good! We're going to send you back to where you came from, so stop resisting and allow us to send you back home! Isn't going home something to be happy about?"

Suddenly, she was caught off guard by a gush of water that came up from underneath her. The magician screamed as the boiling water scorched her and sent her shooting high into the air. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"MISTRESS HIJIRI!" her disciples gasped.

As Byakuren fell back down, the monster leaped up from below with its mouth wide open, ready to devour her. Acting fast, Aya flew at the magician and carried her out of harm's way in time. "Gotcha!" the tengu said, and then she quickly returned to dry land and placed her onto the ground.

"Mistress Hijiri! Are you all right?" Shou asked Byakuren.

"I'm all right… It's just a burn…" Byakuren replied. "Thank you, Miss Shameimaru… I am in your debt…"

"Thanking me can come later… The demon's here again!" said Aya, looking at the monster, who was swimming towards the edge of the lake.

When in front of dry ground, the monster raised its tentacle and brought it down in their direction. Everyone except for Minamitsu got out of the way, and she caught the tentacles with both hands and held it up in the air. "You won't get away with hurting the person who freed me from my fate!" the ship ghost angrily said to the monster. "I'll make you regret it!"

After flinging the tentacle to the side, Minamitsu flew towards the monster and used her anchor to shatter a portion of its left horn.

SMAAAAAAAAASH!

The monster roared in pain from this, and then the ship ghost flew towards the left row of spikes and shattered them one by one with her anchor when she passed it through them. Getting behind the monster, Minamitsu formed a chain on her anchor and wrapped it around the monster's tail, and then pulling with all her might, she managed to move the monster away from the edge of the lake and towards the center.

The monster struggled violently and swung its tail to free itself, but to no avail. "Don't underestimate my strength!" Minamitsu told it. "My strength is comparable to Mistress Hijiri's when she enhances it with magic!"

She then shouted for Ichirin to let Unzan attack the monster from above. The former nodded and then commanded the nyuudo to go over and help Minamitsu. Unzan flew to the monster and, after raising its fists over its own head, struck its head from above with a powerful force that sent it underneath the water.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Minamitsu made the chain connecting to the anchor turned into water so that she wouldn't get dragged down along with the monster, and then she quickly flew to Nue and asked her for the device.

"What do you want with it?" Nue asked her.

"I'll try to activate it myself!" the ship ghost told her.

"Are you sure you can do it?" asked Nue, feeling skeptical.

"Just give it to me! I'll try my best!" Minamitsu told her, so the nue gave it to her. After getting the device, Minamitsu flew back to the center of the lake. She looked at the device and tapped it with her finger to see if it would do anything. Suddenly, the monster's tentacle came up from below, caught her leg, and pulled her underwater.

"MINAMITSU!" some of her comrades gasped.

* * *

Underwater, the ship ghost managed to slip free from the tentacle by turning into water, and then she backed away from the monster before hurling her anchor at its teeth. She then moved farther back from the monster and deeper into the lake to continue trying to get the device to work. "C'mon! Do something already!" she said in frustration.

She then looked back to see the monster recovering from the blow to its teeth, and then it turned to look at her. Out of desperation, Minamitsu flung the device against the ground, summoned her anchor, and then used it to hit the device hard. When it was hit, the device gave off bright blue light from its lines and circles, not to mention making beeping sounds. Suddenly, a large blue portal appeared a few feet in front of the device. Surprised, Minamitsu exclaimed, "It… It worked!"

Suddenly, Minamitsu felt herself being pulled towards the portal, and then she realized that everything around it, including the water, was being sucked inside. As a result, a whirlpool leading into the portal was formed. Before the whirlpool was fully created, Minamitsu quickly picked up the device and then swam to the side.

From the surface, the others could see the whirlpool. "What's happening?!" Shou asked in shock.

"I think Minamitsu got the device to open up a portal, and as a result, the water is getting sucked into it, which explains the whirlpool!" Mamizou explained.

The monster was caught in the whirlpool and pulled towards the portal. In the midst of spinning like crazy in the center of the whirlpool, the monster managed to turn around and tried to swim away from the portal, but it was unable to do so. Even Minamitsu, who managed to swim a bit of a distance from the portal, found herself being drawn towards it. She quickly swam for the surface, but instead of moving upwards and away from the portal, she found herself slowly being pulled towards it instead.

The monster let out a roar as it went tail first into the portal. It tried to grab onto nearby rocks using its tentacles, but they got torn off from the ground and went into the portal. Unable to fight against the pulling force of the portal and not having anything to grab onto, the monster let out a loud and long roar as it went into the portal at a fast speed.

The closer she was to the portal, the faster Minamitsu found herself moving towards it. She quickly formed a long chain on her anchor and hurled the latter forward. The anchor dug its hooked side into the ground, and Minamitsu held onto the chain tightly to avoid being pulled into the portal. She looked back and noticed that the portal was becoming smaller little by little. Thinking that since she couldn't swim away from it, she'll continue grabbing onto the chain to keep herself from being sucked into the portal and stall until the latter disappeared.

Suddenly, the part of the ground that her anchor dug into was torn up, and along with her anchor, the ship ghost was pulled back into the portal at a fast speed. Touching the side of the whirlpool, she found herself spinning along it and moving farther and farther back into the portal. She tried to fly out, but the fast-flowing water kept her from doing anything properly.

Hope of escaping from the portal seemed lost for her when suddenly a pendulum connected to a chain came into the portal. Realizing that this was Nazrin's pendulum, she quickly grabbed it and then yanked back a bit to signal the mouse demon that something caught it. She was then pulled out of the portal at a fast speed just before it closed entirely.

Minamitsu was pulled all the way out of the water, where it was revealed that Byakuren was the one who pulled the chain after enhancing her own strength. "Minamitsu! Thanks goodness you're all right!" Byakuren exclaimed when she saw her.

The others immediately gathered around her, and they were all relieved that the ship ghost was all right. Mamizou then asked her, "What of the demon?"

"It's gone… It went into the portal first…" Minamitsu told her while panting heavily. "We did it… That demon's gone… Gone from Gensokyo for good… Hopefully…"

Hearing this, everyone exclaimed with joy, and Nue patted her back so hard that it felt more like a slap. "All right! Way to go! You did it! You managed to get that as-good-as-useless device to work in the end! Great job!"

"I gave it a good whacking with my anchor," Minamitsu said as she took out the device from her pocket. "This thing's very durable, too! I can't believe that there are no cracks on it! Not sure if it's still functional, though…"

Minamitsu suddenly let out a sneeze, and Byakuren put her hand on her back and asked, "Are you all right?"

"The water's pretty cold, even for me…" the ship ghost replied while shivering with her arms wrapped around herself. "Would be nice to have some warmth now… Achoo!"

"You deserve a rest for saving Gensokyo!" Byakuren told her.

"Yeah! You saved the day! You did great!" Shou told her.

"Good job," Nazrin commented.

"You really did great!" Ichirin said to her.

"You sure had us worried, but congratulations on winning over that demon in the end!" Mamizou said to her.

"You're the best!" Nue said. She was going to pat Minamitsu in the back, but the latter quickly caught her hand, as she didn't want to get "slapped" in the back again.

"I should also be thankful as well, because I almost went along with that monster to his homeland, but thanks to Nazrin and Mistress Hijiri, I was saved!" Minamitsu said. "Achoo!"

The temple residents returned to dry ground, and Aya, Kara, and the kappa went up to Minamitsu and congratulated her for winning over the monster. After they were done congratulating her, Minamitsu handed the device to Aya. "Can you please take this to the science department?" she asked.

"What? You want me to take it the science department?" the tengu asked.

Minamitsu nodded. "Yes. I'm sure they'll be interested in finding out what it is."

"We were planning on giving it to them ourselves, but since we don't know where the lab is, you might as well do it for us," Nue said. "You know where the lab is, right?"

"Actually, I haven't been in there myself, but I do know where some of the entrances are located," replied Aya as she took the device from Minamitsu. "I can at least give it to Nitori and have her take it there. Anyway, I'll do as you say. Something like this will without doubt intrigue the science department. Maybe they'll find out what exactly this thing is and try to put it to good use!"

"Maybe… Just hope that they don't bring in any more demons like that bug and fish…" Mamizou said.

"Bug?" Aya curiously said.

"The first 'guest' we brought here… Minamitsu said that fish demon ate it, though," Mamizou told her.

"Okay… All right, I gotta get going," Aya told the temple residents. "Go back and take your well-deserved rest! And don't get sick, Minamitsu!"

"I think it's already too late…" Minamitsu said. "Achoo!"

With that, Aya, Kara, and the kappa took off into the air. The temple residents did the same, but they flew in a different direction.

"Once we're back at the temple, you should take a warm bath," Byakuren told Minamitsu. "After that, go and take a rest, and we'll prepare some warm delicacies for you. You'll surely return to perfect condition very soon! Oh, make sure to take your medicines too!"

"Thank you, Mistress Hijiri!" Minamitsu said to her. "Achoo! A ghost getting sick… Is this supposed to be normal…?"

* * *

A lone submarine was traveling around deep underneath an ocean somewhere. The crew members inside were doing their tasks when a blue vortex suddenly appeared to the left of the submarine. This was picked up by the radar, and the submarine's navigator reported to the captain and some crew members about it.

"What is it?" the captain asked after hearing about it.

"I don't know, sir, but it seems to be rather big," the navigator replied. "It's not moving, however."

The submarine was slowly moving past the vortex when something suddenly came out of it and rammed into it.

CRAAAAAAASH!

"WE'RE HIT!" the navigator shouted.

The thing that hit the submarine then caught it with its tentacles, and then it opened its massive mouth that was lined with sharp rows of teeth.

CRUNCH!

.

.

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED

in

AYA

The fourth "build-up" story

* * *

I originally intended for this story to have one more chapter, but after thinking that I can easily cram things into this chapter if I shorten things, I decided to end the story with this chapter instead. This will allow me to reach the story that is being built up faster!

I will be going on a church retreat tomorrow and won't be back until Tuesday, but I'll take my mother's laptop (anyone can use it, actually…) there to work on the next story. The last time I checked, the Wi-Fi there requires money, so I won't be uploading the story until I'm back.

Also, it seems that this story stars the Myouren Temple residents as a whole and not Minamitsu, but I think she got the most screen time out of them all.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story, even though it's short.

God bless you all!


End file.
